Effectiveness of mixed-mode parenting training program during the COVID-19 pandemic: A quasi-experiment study in Hong Kong

This study examined the effectiveness of a mixed-mode parenting training program in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic with a quasi-experiment. Altogether 139 parents of preschoolers (ages 3-6) participated in this study and completed the survey on Family Emotional Expressiveness, Child Behavior, Authoritative & Responsive & Negative Parenting across three time points during the lockdowns. They were cluster randomly assigned to the intervention (N1 = 69) and control groups (N2 = 70). The intervention was a 3-month mixed-mode parental training program, including 12-session videos followed by phone calls and homework assignments. The control group did not receive any parental training during the same period. The repeated ANOVA results indicated that: (1) there was a significant main effect of Time (p =.012, eta p2 = 0.045) on parents physical coercion dimension (PCD) scores and also a significant interaction effect between Time and Group (p =.042, eta p2 = 0.032), with the experimental group improved more over time; (2) there was a significant main effect of time (p =.027, eta p2 = 0.036) on parents' verbal hostility dimension (VHD) scores, but no significant Time*Group interaction effect; (3) there was no significant Time effect in parents' score on Negative Submissive (NS), but there was a significant interaction effect between time and group (p =.004, eta p2 = 0.054), with the experimental group reduced more than the control group. These results further provided empirical evidence to support the effectiveness of a mixed-mode parental training program in reducing negative parenting, including the negative submissive emotional ex-pressions at home, physical coercion, and verbal hostility in interacting with preschool children at home. Implications based on social-cultural contexts are also discussed.